For Active Alums, Time to Say Adieu to Barnard's Bear

She greets you everyday on the main gates of Barnard. She dances with you at Midnight Breakfast. She decorates your bulletin boards, T-shirts, notebooks, flip-flops, and buildings.

She’s Barnard’s beloved mascot, Millie the Bear, and she represents the “strong, beautiful Barnard woman.” But some alumnae have bemoaned seeing less of her since the Office of Communications decided to “phase out” her role as the college’s representative to alums.

Christine V. Bullen, BC ’67, first learned about Millie’s dwindling status at a reunion planning meeting. When selecting the ’67 class gift for the May 2007 reunion, the group proposed a blue umbrella bearing Millie. Yet only after getting special permission from Communications could the alumnae flaunt the bear on their umbrellas, and according to Bullen, a University representative said she considered the class of ’67 “lucky” because they “might be the last ones.”

Alumnae mailings “needed a fresher approach to get alumnae attention,” Associate Vice President of Communications Elizabeth Gildersleeve said, alluding to the letter “B” that has replaced Millie as the prominent logo on alumnae documents. Gildersleeve added the Barnard student “thinks the bear is adorable when she’s on campus. But it doesn’t really connect with the 40-year-old alum as an image on a letter.”

The Barnard bear has been around campus since the college’s inception. She was first introduced as a part of founder Frederick A.P. Barnard’s family coat of arms. For a while, she had fur, claws and distinct facial features, yet she later morphed into the friendly form that we know her by today, adopting the name “Millie” after Barnard’s first president, Millicent McIntosh.

Bullen said she thinks that the “giant letter ‘B’” on her Barnard stationery is “stark and ugly. What does a big B mean? The big B is the big bitch. It has negative connotations.”

Although the bear appears less in alumnae communication, she is still available as an emblem for student activities. In fact, Gildersleeve said she wants an image of the bear to dance in front of the webcam that surveys Nexus construction.

The physical education department uses a different breed of bear. FITbear represents the healthy and active Barnard student, according to instructor Tavius Cheatham.

FITbear runs “like every other Barnard student, running from class to class, from one appointment to the next, and of course exercising,” Cheatham said.

While Millie’s appearance may trigger smiles on the Barnard campus, there is one place she doesn’t dare venture—across Broadway. According to Maria Pasquali in the College Activities Office, “the lion makes fun of the bear” on Columbia’s campus, so Millie avoids Roar-ee’s domain by sticking to events within the Barnard gates.

Alumnae remain concerned about Millie’s disappearance, but Gildersleeve assured students that, from the perspective of someone on Barnard’s campus, the bear isn’t going anywhere: “No one is retiring Millie. That’s just the way it is.”

zeynep.memecan@columbiaspectator.com.